1st Round, Pick #31, Germain ifedi, Tackle, Texas A&M

[McGruff]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/whoisjoserivera/status/726100810153615364[/tweet]

I have what I consider a brilliant and we'll written post . . . And then you come along with this to blown it out of the water.

Nice find.

 

[Seahawkfan80]

Three additional observations . . .

First, Ifedi is 21 years old. Not not does he possess freakish athletic ability for a young man, he has his degree. At 21 years old. That says a lot to me about his intelligence and character.

Second, ,following on the first, the guy who first recommended dedicated Ifedi to John was not a coach or trainer. It was Kansas' academic advisor who had previously worked at A&M. Having worked with players from Two colleges the one player he recommended was Ifedi. The academic advisor. A guy whose job is character and intelligence.

Third, in his interviews he comes across as thoughtful, intelligent and passionate about improving through competition and ready to learn.

Put is together. This guy not only as physical traits, he's got the mental and emotional makeup to learn and work at his craft.

His craft is football, but if it doesn't work out, He has an education to fall back on. Great thoughts McGruff.

 

[scutterhawk]

Perhaps we could have traded the 26th pick for 27th through 30th and then everyone on this board could be happy for once.

I'll take Ifedi and a 3rd though. That's good enough for me.

Arizona is the division champion, they got a better player than us that is going to compete against the player we drafted and kill him, we got worse today relatively, we didn't have to do that. This may change if we hit on the 1/100 odds that are a 3rd round pick but I think we'd been better off taking a sure thing.

That's just it, there really is no such thing as "A Sure Thing" in the Drafts.
What some of these guys do in College games, doesn't always translate when they turn Pro.
Everybody loves an attack dog, and there's not too much sexy in playing O-Line, unless you're Walter Jones, or Steve Hutchinson.

 

[Chapow]

One thing to note. The LAST pick in the third round is kind of like a fourth round pick...

So let's not generalize and just say third round is great value. It is basically an early fourth round

Nobody is generalizing. Getting a 3rd round pick for moving down 5 spots at the very end of the 1st round is great value. Especially if they got the guy they wanted anyway and they may very well have done just that.

And it doesn't matter what you want to call it. You can call it "basically an early fourth" if you want, but the fact is, it is a 3rd round pick.

Out of curiosity, do you consider the first pick in round 4 basically a 3rd round pick or is it only the other way around?

It works both ways

Gotcha. So a late 3rd is basically a 4th and an early 4th is basically a 3rd. So does that mean an early 4th is more valuable than a late 3rd? I don't get it, what's the point of this line of thinking? Why the mental gymnastics? Why not just call a pick what it is? A 3rd is a 3rd and a 4th is a 4th. It's not complicated.

The difference between someone giving me $19.99 and $20.01 is $0.02 and not $10

Same principle

What? You lost me with that analogy. Who on earth would consider a 2 cent difference to be a $10 difference. That makes zero sense.

A poster above points out the fifth year option value by staying in the first round. Something I had forgot which is very valuable especially for an OL that needs some coaching.

A fifth year option is basically the same as getting endless appetizers at Applebees.

I am not complaining about the deal. I saw going with Denver vs Dallas more as an indication that we really had our eyes on a player that we thought would get picked if we moved down fuether

 

[brimsalabim]

He simply did not grade well at all, finishing with a negative pass-blocking grade a season ago.

PFF's analysis is based on how players performed in college and as such their biggest concern is that "his technique isn’t close to an NFL level yet." The thing is you can teach technique but you can't teach Ifedi's size, athleticism and length. He was drafted based on development potential and so an evaluation of him based on college performance completely misses the upside. There are tons of other sources which correctly factor in potential that like the selection.

I hear you but the other thing is ... Can Tom Cable teach him propper techniques? I haven't seen any evidence that he can coach pass protection so I would prefer a pick who has demonstrated that he knows how to do it. Russell is going to get killed waiting for this line to develop.

 

[volsunghawk]

I'm entertained by this idea that people have that Schneider and Carroll were really targeting someone else at 26 based on their comments after the pick was done.

First off, Carroll didn't say, "You'll never know" when the team was asked if they'd have taken Ifedi at 26. He said, "You never know." That's not an admission of regret or pining for another player. It's the colloquial equivalent of a shrug. Think about who went between 26 and 31. A guard and 3 DTs. I think most people are on board with Ifedi over Garnett. So for Carroll or Schneider to give any legitimate response to this question is to yell from the rooftops, "Yeah, we need a DT like SO badly and that's our main target this next round!"

 

[Erebus]

The difference between someone giving me $19.99 and $20.01 is $0.02 and not $10

Same principle

What? You lost me with that analogy. Who on earth would consider a 2 cent difference to be a $10 difference. That makes zero sense.

I understood it. It's taking the first digit (a 1 vs a 2) and comparing it to a draft round.

 

[scutterhawk]

I just wish we would load up on defense. It seems very obvious to me that defense is how you win championships.... I don't know if this helps in that regard.

That's a superficial statement, it doesn't really encompass the whole picture; example: The Rams D-line is WAY better than the Cards, and yet the Cards won a lot more games than the Rams in the last couple Years...Go Figure.
Having a better balance of O, D, and ST's is why the Seahawks were able to get over the last hurdle, and thus become Superb Owl Champs.
We no longer have Marshawn Lynch, Sweezy & Okung have moved on....It's time to re-address the O-Line, and take steps to do a much better job of providing our Franchise Quarterback some MORE help, and taking Nngumbdicthkie, or whoever D-Line player we could have taken was going to address our O-Line sputter.
I too want to Draft another Defensive monster to help make our Defense better, but Ifedi was the right pick at the right time in THIS Draft.

 

[kearly]

I know we like to blast Jerry Jones, but as an NFL fan I appreciate his honesty and willingness to talk about deals that didn't quite happen. For example, the next day after he traded his 2nd round pick to move up in the 2012 draft, he told everyone who he was planning to draft with that #45 overall pick had he kept it (Bobby Wagner). JS would never ever show his hand even after the event is over. JS talks about the draft the way that the government talks about Area 51. Which is probably smart, but not nearly as fun.

In this case, we have Jones talking about the offer he made to Seattle. He's probably motivated politically- he wants Cowboy's fans to know that he tried for Lynch- but still. Most GMs would keep stuff like this secret. Jerrah is an open book. That might not make him the best GM ever, but personally as a fan, I appreciate it.

 

[scutterhawk]

He simply did not grade well at all, finishing with a negative pass-blocking grade a season ago.

PFF's analysis is based on how players performed in college and as such their biggest concern is that "his technique isn’t close to an NFL level yet." The thing is you can teach technique but you can't teach Ifedi's size, athleticism and length. He was drafted based on development potential and so an evaluation of him based on college performance completely misses the upside. There are tons of other sources which correctly factor in potential that like the selection.

I hear you but the other thing is ... Can Tom Cable teach him propper techniques? I haven't seen any evidence that he can coach pass protection so I would prefer a pick who has demonstrated that he knows how to do it. Russell is going to get killed waiting for this line to develop.

I think your assessment of Tom Cable not being able to teach proper technique on how to pass protect has some pretty good size holes in it, as in the past, Pete has asked him to provide the Seahawks with a 'Run First' O-Line, but if you'll just take the time to digress a little, you will recall how much better the Offense got at about the half way mark of last Season, and how Wilson was afforded a lot less pressures, hits, and a lot better protection, AND, thus the statement by Cable, about Lynch having to retool his mindset once he returned from his injury.

 

[pehawk]

I know we like to blast Jerry Jones, but as an NFL fan I appreciate his honesty and willingness to talk about deals that didn't quite happen. For example, the next day after he traded his 2nd round pick to move up in the 2012 draft, he told everyone who he was planning to draft with that #45 overall pick had he kept it (Bobby Wagner). JS would never ever show his hand even after the event is over. JS talks about the draft the way that the government talks about Area 51. Which is probably smart, but not nearly as fun.

In this case, we have Jones talking about the offer he made to Seattle. He's probably motivated politically- he wants Cowboy's fans to know that he tried for Lynch- but still. Most GMs would keep stuff like this secret. Jerrah is an open book. That might not make him the best GM ever, but personally as a fan, I appreciate it.

I wonder if Seattle would've bit had Leary been offered as well? Honestly, I have to assume Jerry did offer Leary in at least one compensation option.

We'll never know for sure but these Dallas details may tell us what Pete and John think of Lynch. It could be they really, really like him and weren't going to send to a NFC "rival" regardless of the offer.

 

[razor150]

I am glad we addressed the offensive line, but my biggest problem is that I just don't have a lot of faith in the Front Office when it comes to picking this position. I also feel like we picked up a guy more on his SPARQ score then what he has shown on the field, since his actual tape isn't that good. He is a project, and imo picking a project player in the 1st round isn't that great of value considering how bad our offensive line is. This is a pick that very likely didn't improve our offensive line this year, maybe it will 1 to 2 years from now.

 

[bjornanderson21]

Well this pick is starting to bother me. When you watch the presser of with John and Pete without saying they admit that this would not have been there pick at 26. I believe there were DT on the board at 26 that they licked better than Germain. Sometimes it's not always a good idea to trade down.

After watching his tape Germain Ifedi reminds me of James Carpenter (and to a less degree Justin Britt), a big super strong mauler who was good enough to play Right Tackle at college but is too slow to play anything but guard in the pros. This is the type of player that Tom Cable loves. According to Tom his issues are easily fixed. A lot of number picks came from the Texas A & M offensive line in resent years so I don't think you can write his play off to poor coaching.

Hope I'm wrong.

In all likelihood you aren't wrong that they would have taken someone else at 26.

That by itself doesn't mean trading back is bad though.

If the Hawks had a group of players who were rated similarly and they would be happy with any of them, then trading back and still getting one of the guys would be considered a success.

Did they lose out on someone rated SLIGHTLY higher? Probably.

Thats what the 3rd rounder is for. We took someone rated slightly lower but get ANOTHER chance to grab someone in the 3rd.


Even though ifedi is not the OL i wanted, if we combine him with whoever we get with the extra 3rd then it still works out pretty well (i graded it B-)

 

[kearly]

Another under-rated aspect of this pick is that Ifedi has been durable over 3 college seasons. Tom Cable's style tends to lead to a lot of players getting dinged, so having a prospect with a perfect health record is a significant plus.

 

[scutterhawk]

Three additional observations . . .

First, Ifedi is 21 years old. Not not does he possess freakish athletic ability for a young man, he has his degree. At 21 years old. That says a lot to me about his intelligence and character.

Second, ,following on the first, the guy who first recommended dedicated Ifedi to John was not a coach or trainer. It was Kansas' academic advisor who had previously worked at A&M. Having worked with players from Two colleges the one player he recommended was Ifedi. The academic advisor. A guy whose job is character and intelligence.

Third, in his interviews he comes across as thoughtful, intelligent and passionate about improving through competition and ready to learn.

Put is together. This guy not only as physical traits, he's got the mental and emotional makeup to learn and work at his craft.

His craft is football, but if it doesn't work out, He has an education to fall back on. Great thoughts McGruff.

Sounds like you missed McGruff's point....Ifedi's intelligence, and Physical freakishness is a really nice combination for Cable to have at his disposal, and could be a big plus at helping Ifedi make the transition in a shorter amount of time.

 

[Chapow]

We went in to the first round with the 26th pick. We came out of the first round with a guy that is very likely to upgrade our weakest positional group and has a helluva high ceiling, AND a 3rd round draft pick.

I think we did very well.

 

[hawk45]

He simply did not grade well at all, finishing with a negative pass-blocking grade a season ago.

PFF's analysis is based on how players performed in college and as such their biggest concern is that "his technique isn’t close to an NFL level yet." The thing is you can teach technique but you can't teach Ifedi's size, athleticism and length. He was drafted based on development potential and so an evaluation of him based on college performance completely misses the upside. There are tons of other sources which correctly factor in potential that like the selection.

They acknowledged (implicitly) that technique can be taught, but felt that with the distance the player has to travel in terms of technique to be NFL-ready, if it takes two years to get him ready then Seattle won't get enough use out of the upside to justify a first-round selection. This is a very legitimate viewpoint, especially considering that OL is the place Seattle is least likely to extend second contracts.

There are examples of Cable getting use out of "upside" players before 2 years (Sweezy, Gilliam, Nowak). He seems to be able to get use out of them right away in terms of run-blocking.

But in terms of pass-blocking, the Nowak experiment was discontinued due to conspicuous lack of success with that approach as relates to pass blocking, Sweezy struggled with pass blocking his entire tenure (although the impression of his failure was influenced by his tendency to have extremely conspicuous whiffs when he did fail), and Gilliam alone is an example of a guy who didn't suck bad enough at pass pro to yank before he began to improve. And now we're moving Gilliam and praying he picks up the progression where it left off, something I'm skeptical of. I apologize if I'm skipping an example of a project player that hurts my position, if I am it's not deliberate.

IMO Cable's trial-by-fire approach with young talent and his emphasis on run-blocking means we should skew towards acquiring players with better pass pro technique out of the box, rather than allowing him to employ the SPARQ approach that Pete makes work so well on the other side of the ball.

I'm mainly happy about the pick because they've set the bar so low at that position group in terms of drafting players with any experience and technique whatsoever. Getting a player who actually played OL in college feels like a giant step forward (and may actually be a giant step forward, even if he has a long way to go with technique relative to other OL on the draft board).

But, since they have set the bar so low, I'm pretty darned happy about the pick. To get a physically gifted and imposing specimen who has actually played the position is a much better place than I thought we'd be at after round 1.

 

[twisted_steel2]

Just some stuff I saw on Reddit, found it interesting:

Played in high school with Germain and went to college with him. The guy's a stud with an insane work ethic. And incredibly intelligent too. He spent this past summer doing an internship with the construction company building Kyle Field at A&M. Y'all got a great player for damn sure.

Also:

To piggyback off of this, I 'm a construction science major at A&M and was another intern with Manhattan on Kyle Field for that whole semester. I actually sat in the cubicle next to him in our trailer, and we saw each other 5 or 6 days a week until summer. You can look in my post history about me talking about working on Kyle Field if you really don't believe me, but I have no reason to lie.

Anyway, he really does have an insane work ethic, got to work everyday at 7am, worked till 2:30 before heading to practice at 3:00, rinse and repeat all semester. Of course, he got a little bit of special treatment from the other guys, they were mostly Aggies too and all knew who he was but he was actually a solid contributor to the project. Smart guy, really quiet, down to earth, opposite of Johnny. I remember he got his Aggie ring that semester and A) He has size 15 fingers, which is ridiculous, and B) The skin on his hands looks like elephant skin, it was so tough I guess from punching D-lineman.

Anyway just thought I'd share, I'm super happy for him. It was great to see him go first round.

 

[pehawk]

Awesome Twisted!

 

[McGruff]

He simply did not grade well at all, finishing with a negative pass-blocking grade a season ago.

PFF's analysis is based on how players performed in college and as such their biggest concern is that "his technique isn’t close to an NFL level yet." The thing is you can teach technique but you can't teach Ifedi's size, athleticism and length. He was drafted based on development potential and so an evaluation of him based on college performance completely misses the upside. There are tons of other sources which correctly factor in potential that like the selection.

They acknowledged (implicitly) that technique can be taught, but felt that with the distance the player has to travel in terms of technique to be NFL-ready, if it takes two years to get him ready then Seattle won't get enough use out of the upside to justify a first-round selection. This is a very legitimate viewpoint, especially considering that OL is the place Seattle is least likely to extend second contracts.

There are examples of Cable getting use out of "upside" players before 2 years (Sweezy, Gilliam, Nowak). He seems to be able to get use out of them right away in terms of run-blocking.

But in terms of pass-blocking, the Nowak experiment was discontinued due to conspicuous lack of success with that approach as relates to pass blocking, Sweezy struggled with pass blocking his entire tenure (although the impression of his failure was influenced by his tendency to have extremely conspicuous whiffs when he did fail), and Gilliam alone is an example of a guy who didn't suck bad enough at pass pro to yank before he began to improve. And now we're moving Gilliam and praying he picks up the progression where it left off, something I'm skeptical of. I apologize if I'm skipping an example of a project player that hurts my position, if I am it's not deliberate.

IMO Cable's trial-by-fire approach with young talent and his emphasis on run-blocking means we should skew towards acquiring players with better pass pro technique out of the box, rather than allowing him to employ the SPARQ approach that Pete makes work so well on the other side of the ball.

I'm mainly happy about the pick because they've set the bar so low at that position group in terms of drafting players with any experience and technique whatsoever. Getting a player who actually played OL in college feels like a giant step forward (and may actually be a giant step forward, even if he has a long way to go with technique relative to other OL on the draft board).

But, since they have set the bar so low, I'm pretty darned happy about the pick. To get a physically gifted and imposing specimen who has actually played the position is a much better place than I thought we'd be at after round 1.

Awesome insight and confirms what I've heaRd and seen on the field. Here's my parting shot before we move on round 2.
I've been an Ifedi fan. He's got significant technical flaws. He reaches, lunges, trips and general plays too much outside his frame. Most of that may be due to playing in a scheme that has wide spacing and is generally read and react. I think he can be coached. He's also slow to get his hands in position.

He's got the quickest snap reaction time I've ever seen, though. He's up and into his back pedal so fast and his feet are very fast. He's athletic, and that athleticism allows hi. To cover his mistakes more often than not. He's physical and plays through the whistle and looks for someone to block, and I think that is an intangible they see in him. He really wants it. He wants contact, wants to win, wants to be the best. And he's super intellignet.

He's a guy with truly rare traits who is passionate, smart and coachable. He shouldn't have any problem teansitioning and excelling.

If he does, he's a 10 year prowl right tackle. He's a cornerstone player. I truly believe that. And I think he's got a better than 50/50 chance of becoming that.